The day after the T.E.E.... copy and paste from the OTHER blog as well lol

Thankfully, the T.E.E. went well and showed that my leaky mitral valve and resulting regurge aren't significant enough to require surgery!  Glad for that! :)  So on with dealing with the medications and the next step... sleep study.

Medications.  First night on the ACE inhibitor was a little rough, but my body will adjust.  My HR was in the mid 40's at the hospital yesterday and remained there in the surgical unit, prompting one of the residents who was attending/watching to ask me (before the procedure, of course) if I'd been evaluated for sick sinus syndrome (not to be confused with sinus, as in your nasal cavity).  I haven't, but in a nutshell... SSS is where your HR varies between bradycardia-normal-and often-times A Fib and/or tachycardia.  We've not gone there yet, but who knows what will happen down the road.

Meantime... back at the ranch....

First dose of Lisinopril was a tad unnerving.  Dizziness, a little chest pressure, BP was a bit low right before bedtime:  96/73 w/HR at 55 BPM.  Hey, better than at stroke level as it was last Saturday!  Woke up this morning very tired, heavy feeling, a bit weak and sweaty (suspected low BP).  Darn BP monitor wouldn't get a reading at all, which is no surprise since it will error out when it's too low sometimes.

Eliquis... well, it's an anticoagulant (blood thinner), and I will be on this the rest of my life.  This drug is prescribed to those with A Fib to help prevent stroke.  I just have to be careful with all I do, even with any dental work, which I need to go to the dentist soon anyway.  Even a routine cleaning that causes bleeding can cause BIG problems.  Stopping this medication for certain procedures, like the removal of a tooth or other minor surgery.... can be tricky, because stopping this drug has been known to cause blood clots and stroke.

I even have to warn the person doing my nails to be very very careful, as I've been accidentally cut by those big nail files before.  In the past, this hasn't been anything but a minor inconvenience.  Not so much the case now.

So, yeah... life is going to be a bit different from here on out.  No contact sports (there goes my football career!). lol  ;p  Different is just different.  That's all.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  Not bad. Just.. different.

Next step.....Sleep study on the horizon....

We'll see.  At the end of the road I'm hoping the A Fib will be contained/controlled, the pulmonary hypertension will be relieved in some way (hey, a girl can hope, right?), and I will regain a normal energy level again.  :)